DePaul Resources

Taken together, the courses in the First-Year Writing Program at DePaul University seek to develop student competencies in five general categories: rhetorical knowledge; critical thinking, reading and writing; writing processes; and knowledge of conventions.

Rhetorical Knowledge

By the end of FYW, students should be able to demonstrate that they can:

· Define and focus on a purpose or purposes

· Interpret and respond to different audiences

· Respond appropriately to different kinds of rhetorical situations

· Apply conventions of format and structure appropriate to the rhetorical situation

· Apply appropriate tone, diction, and level of formality

· Demonstrate how genres shape reading and writing

· Write in several genres

Critical Thinking, Reading and Writing

By the end of FYW, students should be able to demonstrate that they can:

· Employ writing and reading for inquiry, thinking, and communicating

· Respond and evaluate texts in multiple genres and media

· Demonstrate that a writing assignment is a series of tasks that includes finding, analyzing, and synthesizing appropriate primary and secondary sources

· Integrate their own ideas with those of others

· Interpret and explain the relationships among language, knowledge, and power

Processes

By the end of FYW, students should to demonstrate that they can:

· Recognize and articulate the value of using multiple drafts to create and complete a successful text